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    <title>The Lost Cathedral, a documentary edition</title>
    <link>https://folio863.org</link>
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    <description>Documentary edition, edited by Consuelo Vargas Montiel. 28 documents on the lost Cathedral of León, Nicaragua.</description>
    <language>en</language>
    <copyright>© 1976 Instituto Superior de Estudios Iberoamericanos</copyright>
    <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:47:04 GMT</pubDate>
    <lastBuildDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:47:04 GMT</lastBuildDate>
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    <item>
      <title>01 / 28. Letter of Appointment</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/1</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:20:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Royal appointment</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Royal appointment · August 3, 1527

Document 1 of 28. Part One: The Governor's Notary. Opens the edition. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: The document that begins this collection is the shortest document in it. It is also the most ordinary. I include it because every archive should begin with a credential — with the record of who was authorized to keep…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>02 / 28. Counter-Ledger Selections</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/2</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:21:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Private ledger</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Private ledger · 1527 – 1531

Rodrigo Cervantes de la Noche, Notary to the Governor of Nicaragua Kept apart from the archive. Not to be consulted without the keeper's direction. The position was explained to me by the chief clerk, a man named Varela, who holds his hands very still when he speaks, which I have noticed is often the sign of someone…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>03 / 28. Deposition and Counter-Ledger Entry 14</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/3</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:22:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Official deposition + ledger entry</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Official deposition + ledger entry · August 7, 1529

Document 3 of 28. Part One: The Governor's Notary. Follows the counter-ledger selections (Document 2) and precedes Counter-Ledger Entry 31 (Document 4). Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: Document 3 is two documents presented together: the official certification of the Governor's biannual private-papers review, conducted…]]></description>
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    <item>
      <title>04 / 28. Counter-Ledger Entry 31</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/4</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:23:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Private ledger entry</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Private ledger entry · March 1, 1531

Document 4 of 28. Part One: The Governor's Notary. Immediately precedes The Letter (Document 5). Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: The reader has just read Entry 31 in Document 2. It belongs here, in the reading order, immediately before the letter. Entry 31 was written on the same night, after the letter was burned,…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>05 / 28. The Letter</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/5</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:24:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Dictated letter (copy)</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Dictated letter (copy) · March 1, 1531

Copy of a letter dictated by His Excellency Pedro Arias Dávila, Governor of the Province of Nicaragua, to his notary Rodrigo Cervantes de la Noche, and addressed to the Most Reverend Fray Diego de Salamanca, Bishop of Nicaragua. Dictated in the governor's private chamber on this first day of March, in the Year of Our…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>06 / 28. The Inventory</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/6</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:25:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Official inventory</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Official inventory · March 6, 1531

By authority of the Crown of Castile, in the name of His Imperial Majesty Charles, King of Castile, León, Aragon, and the Two Sicilies, Holy Roman Emperor: Inventory of the personal effects of His Excellency Pedro Arias Dávila, Knight Commander of the Order of Santiago, Governor of the Province of Nicaragua, deceased…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>07 / 28. Rodrigo&apos;s Letter to Catalina</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/7</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:26:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Personal letter</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Personal letter · 1546

Document 7 of 28. Part One: The Governor's Notary. Closes Part One. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: This letter was not in the cedar box. It was found in the Diocesan Archive of León in a bundle of miscellaneous correspondence from the mid-sixteenth century, misfiled between a land survey from 1543 and a cathedral…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>08 / 28. Private Note of Bishop Rodrigo de la Vega</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/8</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:27:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Episcopal private note</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Episcopal private note · c. 1610–1611

Document 8 of 28. Bridge document between Part One and Part Two. Private note of Bishop Rodrigo de la Vega, written in León Viejo at an unknown date during his episcopate (1601–1619). Found loose in the Diocesan Archive of León in 1976, in a folder of episcopal correspondence misfiled with administrative records of…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>09 / 28. Diocesan Inventory of 1647</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/9</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:28:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Diocesan inventory</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Diocesan inventory · 1647

Document 9 of 28. Diocesan inventory recording the cedar box in episcopal storage one hundred and two years after Part One. The second of two bridge documents between Part One and Part Two. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: 1647. León. One hundred and two years after the last document in Part One, the cedar box…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>10 / 28. Bishop&apos;s Petition</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/10</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:29:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Episcopal petition</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Episcopal petition · 1745

Document 10 of 28. Part Two: The Architect's Confession. Opens Part Two. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: The petition that initiated the cathedral project. It was submitted in 1745 and approved in 1747, a delay of two years that the Bishop's correspondence suggests he found extremely frustrating. I reproduce it in…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>11 / 28. Council Decree</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/11</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:30:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Council decree</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Council decree · 1747

Document 11 of 28. Part Two: The Architect's Confession. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: The approval. Two years after the petition. The Council of the Indies approved the construction of the Cathedral of León in August of 1747 and authorized the engagement of an architect from the colonial workshop system. What the…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>12 / 28. Commission to Porres</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/12</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:31:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Architectural commission</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Architectural commission · 1747

Document 12 of 28. Part Two: The Architect's Confession. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: Diego de Porres was commissioned to prepare the initial plans for the cathedral in 1746, one year before the Council of the Indies formally approved the project — a typical arrangement, as petitions required architectural drawings…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>13 / 28. Account of Ignacio Moya, Architect</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/13</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:32:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Personal account</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Personal account · 1771

Written in Seville, Spain, in the month of October, in the Year of Our Lord 1771 I am fifty-eight years old and I am writing this in my study in Seville, where the light in October comes in low through the south window and makes everything amber from the third hour onward, which I have always found helpful. The reason…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>14 / 28. Filing Note</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/14</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:33:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Filing note</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Filing note · 1751

Document 14 of 28. Part Two: The Architect's Confession. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: Bartolomé Aznar filed the adaptation records submitted by Ignacio Moya in 1750 and 1751, documenting the modifications to the approved cathedral plans. His filing note is four sentences. I include it in full because four sentences…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>15 / 28. Letter from Porres</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/15</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:34:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Personal letter</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Personal letter · 1748

Document 15 of 28. Part Two: The Architect's Confession. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: Diego de Porres heard about what had been done to his plans in the spring of 1752, when a colleague returning from Nicaragua described the construction in progress. He wrote this letter to the Bishop immediately. The letter was…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>16 / 28. Construction Log, 1749</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/16</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:35:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Construction log</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Construction log · 1749

Document 16 of 28. Part Two: The Architect's Confession. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: The construction logs for the Cathedral of León survive in fragmentary form in the Diocesan Archive. They were kept by a series of foremen over the construction period and are, for the most part, records of materials, labor, and…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>17 / 28. Letter from Ignacio in Seville</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/17</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:36:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Personal letter</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Personal letter · 1771

Document 17 of 28. Part Two: The Architect's Confession. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: Ignacio Moya arrived in Seville in July 1752, two months after leaving León. He wrote to Bishop Isidoro Venegas de Cienfuegos in September of that year. The letter was found in the Diocesan Archive in a bundle of the Bishop's…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>18 / 28. Construction Log, 1753</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/18</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:37:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Construction log</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Construction log · 1753

Document 18 of 28. Part Two: The Architect's Confession. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: The second selected entry from the construction logs. This is the first time Tomasín is named in any document in this collection.] Kept by Foreman Luis Espinoza March 3, 1753 Weather clear after rain. Fourteen men on site. Work on…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>19 / 28. Construction Log, 1755</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/19</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:38:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Construction log</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Construction log · 1755

Document 19 of 28. Part Three: The Wall. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: The third selected construction log entry. This entry appears at the beginning of Part Three rather than at the end of Part Two because it is the document that opens the question that Part Three answers.] Kept by Foreman Andrés Castellanos…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>20 / 28. The Mason&apos;s Document</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/20</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:39:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Document on amate paper</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Document on amate paper · c. 1755

Consuelo's header note: [C.V.: This document was found inside the south transept wall of the Cathedral of León on the afternoon of March 11, 1974. I had been probing a section of wall between the second and third pilasters, following a thermal anomaly that our equipment had flagged as a void approximately sixteen…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>21 / 28. The Lima Letter</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/21</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:40:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Diocesan letter</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Diocesan letter · November 1763

Document 21 of 28. Part Three: The Wall. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: These documents are what surrounded it. The Lima letter. It was found in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, in a bundle of miscellaneous ecclesiastical correspondence from the viceroyalty of Peru. It was not filed with the León materials.…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>22 / 28. Confession in Extremis</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/22</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:41:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Confession in extremis</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Confession in extremis · 1771

Document 22 of 28. Part Three: The Wall. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: In the autumn of 1771, Bishop Isidoro Venegas de Cienfuegos fell gravely ill at the age of eighty-six. The illness lasted three weeks. His confessor, Father Hernán Cáceres, attended him throughout and recorded this confession, made on what all…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>23 / 28. Final Construction Log, 1783</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/23</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:42:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Construction log</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Construction log · 1783

Document 23 of 28. Part Three: The Wall. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: The last entry of the construction log kept under Overseer Fuentes, written on the final day of 1783. The log continues after this under a different overseer, but this is the entry that closes the generation that built the cathedral's body. The…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>24 / 28. Petition for Release Filed by Tomasín</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/24</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:43:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Labor petition</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Labor petition · November 1755

Document 24 of 28. Part Three: The Wall. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: This document is from 1755 — the year the south transept wall was completed, and twenty-eight years before the preceding log entry. Tomasín filed this petition himself. It is the only document in which he speaks in the first person. These are the…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>25 / 28. Inventory of Decorative Stonework</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/25</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://folio863.org/document/25</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:44:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Decorative inventory</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Decorative inventory · 1790

Document 25 of 28. Part Three: The Wall. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: In 1780, as the interior decoration of the south transept was being finalized, the diocesan administration commissioned an inventory of the decorative stonework in that section. The inventory was compiled by a clerk named Pacheco. It is a…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>26 / 28. The Visiting Bishop</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/26</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:45:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Personal account</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Personal account · 1790

Document 26 of 28. Part Three: The Wall. Closes Part Three. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: The Bishop of Guatemala visited León in the spring of 1790 on a tour of the Central American dioceses. He wrote to the Archbishop of Mexico City about his visit. The letter is partly administrative and partly personal. I…]]></description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>27 / 28. Research Notes — Archivo General de Indias</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/27</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:46:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Editor&apos;s research notes</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Editor's research notes · 1974 – 1976

Document 27 of 28. Part Four: The Apparatus. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: I include my own research notes because the process of finding the documents in the archive is, in a modest way, part of the story these documents tell. I have selected entries from the fourteen months I spent in archival research, primarily…]]></description>
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    <item>
      <title>28 / 28. Letter from Reyes Domínguez</title>
      <link>https://folio863.org/document/28</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2026 21:47:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Scholarly correspondence</category>
      <description><![CDATA[Scholarly correspondence · 1976

Document 28 of 28. Part Four: The Apparatus. Closes the edition before the Mason's Document. Consuelo's section note: [C.V.: The last document before the Mason's Document itself. Dr. Reyes Domínguez is a specialist in colonial and pre-contact Nahuatl at UNAM. I sent him a photograph of the bark-paper document in April…]]></description>
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